September 17 -- Energy Crossroads – This award winning film exposes the problems associated with our energy consumption and offers concrete solutions. The film features passionate individuals, entrepreneurs, experts and scientists at the forefront of a new energy future.

September 24 – Kilowatt Ours – Another award winner that explores energy sources and problems, then highlights people making a difference in energy conservation, efficiency and renewable, green power, all while saving money and the environment. This often amusing and always inspiring story shows, “You can easily make a difference and here’s how!”

October 1 – Fossil Fuel Free Film – and More – Follow the adventures of filmmaker Matt Harnack as he tries to live life without fossil fuels. “I set out to make a film without burning any petroleum. I was determined to break my addiction to oil. I did the only thing I knew how to do. I made a movie.” Plus other short films to entertain and inform.

October 8 – Bicycle Night – Enjoy some great short films about how cities from Bogota to Copenhagen are working to make their communities bike friendly. Residents are lowering carbon footprints, getting healthier, and enjoying life more.

October 15 -- In Transition -- An inspirational film about how local communities, like ours, can respond to peak oil and global warming while building community and enjoying life. Do come again, even if you saw the film last time - we'll have more great discussion!

October 22 – It will be our second 100 mile potluck – don’t miss it!

New Friday Night Film Series - Films of Hope and Vision

We're back, by popular demand! Don't miss our next "Films of Hope and Vision" film series starting Friday May 14, sponsored by Acterra, Silicon Valley Action Network, World Centric, the South Bay Slow Food Movement, and Transition Palo Alto. Lively discussions will follow each film.

Free Friday Night Film Series at World Centric, 7:30 - 9:30 P.M.

May 14 - Power of Community -- When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba couldn't export its sugar or import oil. This film shows how Cuba weathered the crisis. Powerful, insightful, and uplifting. Don't miss this one! Come again, even if you saw the film last time - we'll have more great discussion!

May 21 - King Corn -- King Corn is a fascinating feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation...

May 28 - Two Angry Moms -- Two Angry Moms shows not only what is wrong with school food; it offers strategies for overcoming roadblocks and getting healthy, good tasting, real food into school cafeterias. The movie explores the roles the federal government, corporate interests, school administration and parents play in feeding our country's school kids.

June 4 - Establishing a Food Forest -- This is a great how-to film about how to establish and maintain a food forest, one of the main sustainable systems that will allow us to inhabit this planet indefinitely. Geoff Lawton of the permaculture research institute has created a real masterpiece with this film, condensing his encyclopedic knowledge and experience of these systems into a 'how to do it' instructional video.

June 11 - In Transition -- An inspirational film about how local communities, like ours, can respond to peak oil and global warming while building community and enjoying life. Come again, even if you saw the film last time - we'll have more great discussion!

DIRT! the Movie, narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis, brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impacts of soil. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.

DIRT! the Movie tells the story of Earth's most valuable and under-appreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation. The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, dirt is very much alive. Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to, and respect for, soil has been disrupted.

Real change lies in our notion of what dirt is. This movie teaches us that when humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans have been intimately linked. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Dirt! The Movie takes a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to.

Adrienne Fitch-Frankel, Fair Trade Campaign Director, Global Exchange: Adrienne Fitch-Frankel will fill in details about forced and child labor in the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade addresses these issues.

Edouard Rollet, Co-Founder/Chief Operations Officer, Alter Eco: Visionary social entrepreneurship leader Edouard Rollet will describe his visits to Fair Trade cocoa cooperatives around the world and discuss the transformative impact on social justice, poverty, and the environment his company and others are making.

The Film: The Dark Side of Chocolate

The 2010 Documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate reveals shocking evidence that child and forced labor continue in the cocoa fields for millions of children, nearly a decade after the major players in the cocoa industry promised to resolve the problem.

Nationwide screenings are empowering thousands of people to come together to send one clear message to the chocolate industry: “We will not tolerate abusive child labor and trafficking in the cocoa fields.”

The screenings are organized by Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Campaign and other organizational members of the Raise the Bar Campaign, which is pressing chocolate manufacturers to end exploitative child and forced labor in the cocoa fields. To learn more about Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Campaign and the Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign, please visit www.globalexchange.org/cocoa.

Sincere thanks to Palo Alto screening sponsors Chocolate Dividends, World Centric, Alter Eco, Coco-Zen, and the makes of The Dark Side of Chocolate, Miki Mistrati and Roberto Romano!

Global Exchange is an international human rights group that relies on its members - tens of thousands of people like you - to work with us to create social, political and environmental justice.